Equipment

Set up a Bag Making maker space

Grommet Presses:

We have researched grommet presses thoroughly for this project. The $30-$60- e bay grommet presses are JUNK! Do not buy these. Buy the HIKER. It is the only machine that has an adjustment for thickness. It’s sturdy and will last.

Hiker Grommet Press - (Website)

Retail $250- Comes with 500 Hiker Grommets

Talk to Walter. Make sure you say you are with The Bagshare Project. You want the machine with  NO PLASTIC TRAY.

**When you receive your machine(s) you will mount each one on a board so it can be clamped safely to a table. We engraved The Town of Adams on the board. That’s a good idea so if the press is borrowed you know where it gets returned to.

Bag pushers: You will need 3 for 6-8 volunteers. You can buy them from us at $18- ea.
You can easily make them yourself from scrap wood.



Bag Formers: You will need 3 chairs for 6-8 volunteers.
Use a Chair: You will need 2-3 straight backed or just slightly tilted back chairs.
They should be 18” in length or more with the arms low enough down so the bag pusher will fit.
The width should be no more than 18” wide. The chairs help form the bags by folding them in half using the bag pusher.
Test the chair before your workshop.
 
 

Tape dispensers: $40 ea
A dispenser or two speeds up the process.

Masking tape


FREE ITEMS:

Irrigation Drip Tape/ T tape: FREE

Collect this in the fall when farmers take it up from the fields after he growing season. You will probably need to wipe it down with a wet cloth as you're cutting it into 15" lengths, but it cleans up easily!

CHAIRS: FREE

You will need 2-3 chairs that have a straight back and are no more than ---- inches wide. The chairs serve as a way to fold the bags in half. You place the full size bag on the chair back and the pusher goes over the bag. Once you pull up on the pusher the bag folds in half.
Find and test some chairs before your workshop.

FREE BAGS!!
BREW BAGS:
Adopt a brewery and arrange for a steady collection of their ‘brew’ bags. Make sure you tell them they need to be clean and dry.

BIRD SEED and ANIMAL FEED BAGS: 
These bags are made of a sturdier plastic than the brew bags and we fold them without the pushers because of their thickness. The images are beautiful, but the bag making process is a bit slower and kids especially find them harder to make. But they are worth collecting and can be re made into many other items. Our video shows how to make these bags.

Set up a collection box: at any store that sells seed and feed. We call it a Feed bag collection station. We have set them up at Dave’s Soda and Pet Food city and our local transfer station and farm supply store Country Corral. After a while people get used to returning them. Leave an example of the gorgeous shopping bags they become as part of your display.

Storage Space: FREE because this is important!
OCCUPY, OCCUPY, OCCUPY!

There are many underused spaces in most areas. A basement, an attic, part of your barn or someone else's, a shed, a trailer, an empty storefront, a school building that has closed. Don’t be shy about asking to use space for this worthy project. Every seed/feed or brew bag you keep out of the landfills is equivalent to 33 regular plastic bags that are now being banned. Use our posters about this to help convince the powers that be.

Storage space is key because once you start collecting you will not be able to process the bags quickly enough. They are light and easy to store.

Baling Twine: FREE
Ask farmers to bag it up as they untie their hay bales. This is for a tie in handle. Volunteers braid it, twist it and make it into cordage and then insert it through the grommet for a sturdy handle.

Your $20- Bag making space for travelling bag making and processing the bags you generate at home.

Maybe you are a farmer or pet owner and you generate 30-40 bags a year. Here’s an option you can do in those quiet winter months to remake your bags into sturdy carrier bags. You can throw pet food bags in the washing machine to take out the smell or feed bags that are sticky or dirty.


Grommet Tool:

Most hardware stores sell these. You will need a hammer also. It’s slower than the grommet press, but works just fine and you can’t beat the price!






How to decide how big a space you need?
How many bags can you collect in your area?

If you want to go fast and process 1000’s of bags and have a work force of 6-8 people here are some numbers:

6-8 trained volunteers can make 150 bags in 3 hours with three grommet machines, 3  bag pushers, and grommets. If one of the grommet machines is the Giraffe it’s even a little faster.